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Strike aftermath: Cleaning up the mess

This strike demonstrates again that David Miller is an ineffective mayor and should be replaced. His record is one of repeated misjudgment and mismanagement.

Sat., Aug. 1, 2009

This strike demonstrates again that David Miller is an ineffective mayor and should be replaced. His record is one of repeated misjudgment and mismanagement.

He came to office promising to stop air traffic at the Island Airport. That airport is now busier than ever, with nothing to show for Miller's efforts but a heavy legal bill.

He oversaw a disastrous and expensive marketing campaign that had to be scrapped ... does anyone remember "Toronto Unlimited"?

He botched the opportunity to access federal stimulus funding by making a single application that was clearly not eligible, and feigned surprise that it was rejected, costing the city $300 million.

He has failed miserably in efforts to deliver balanced budgets without provincial support, and has increased taxes more than the rate of inflation.

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He mismanaged the garbage crisis from the outset, setting diversion goals that are unattainable, and with no plan to come close to attaining them.

He supported giving council members a substantial raise in pay and then seemed surprised that the civic workers were reluctant to accept much less.

With a record of failure like this, it is not surprising that he supports giving councillors (including the mayor) funds to launch defamation suits against critical citizens. This is nothing but a taxpayer-funded gag law on taxpayers.

The list goes on.

This record demonstrates a complete failure of leadership by example, or any leadership at all. The worst of it is that the one notable thing he has succeeded in is persuading the province to increase the powers of the mayor and the council, and extending their terms to four years, making it more difficult for citizens to hold them accountable.

The next municipal election can't come soon enough to rid ourselves of this failed mayor.

Steve Van Houten, Toronto

Miller's tactics raise questions, Editorial, July 30

This editorial is breathtaking in its sense of entitlement and isolation from reality. If your editorial writers truly think that a partial stoppage of municipal services for a few weeks in one of the world's richest cities constitutes a major urban crisis, they are out of touch with the real crises facing today's cities, and are betraying the Star's legacy of commitment to social justice in a global frame of reference. Torontonians can very well afford the terms of the settlement negotiated by those who provide their municipal services. Whether the tax burden could be apportioned more fairly is a separate issue, one to which the Star could well direct attention in advance of the next provincial election, since municipalities now have almost no latitude in this regard.

Ted Schrecker, Ottawa

There will be a political price for chaos from strike, July 28

The degree of anti-union, anti-labour rhetoric raised by the strike is terrifying. From online comments to conversations on the street to supposedly neutral journalists, the consensus seems to be that all unions everywhere should be crushed, and that workers' rights, by nature, are uncompetitive in the global economy. Torontonians are selfish, short-sighted and ultimately self-destructive if they want to jump on the American-style Wal-Mart bandwagon where workers' rights, let alone full-time jobs, simply don't exist. Funny how quickly people forget that unregulated, unfettered capitalism, not unions or workers, created the current economic catastrophe.

Ryan Whyte, Toronto

The union representing outside workers needs to do a lot to restore confidence in them. After humiliating tactics to treat Torontonians like hostages – 15 minute waits to dump garbage, not helping people to unload their garbage – future strikers should remember not to "burn" the people who could support them. Neither side (city or unions) won much, so the bitterness won't subside overnight. Binding arbitration is a must. The city as of now is a mess.

Michael Sullivan, Toronto

This strike was an absolute disgrace. What is the true environmental consequence of our garbage leeching into our parks and eventually groundwater, not to mention the chemicals applied? Most garbage dumps require rigorous environmental assessments and contain liners to prevent leeching (even pavement is not impervious). I also wonder how the wet weather did in spreading contaminants away from the dump sites.

The greed and lack of foresight of this strike could leave us with a contaminated legacy for years to come. It's time to assess the environmental consequences.

Robert Stupka, Toronto

Thanks to Royson James for his "five lessons" of the strike. Most important was No. 4: stop the union bashing. As someone who has researched Toronto before the era of unions and government-regulated labour relations, I can tell you that Toronto was not the "good" place its moniker pretends. Indeed, the point of C.S. Clark's 1898 study, "Toronto The Good," was to show that Toronto was not good.

For too many marginal, immigrant labourer-citizens in the city of churches at the turn of the 20th century, Toronto offered only heartbreak wages and desperation paraded as quality of life. Today's Torontonians (especially those who would "crush" the unions that ensure humane wages for those who keep the city operating) need to know that, for example, the inauguration of the Toronto Star Fresh Air Fund was a brave, if modest, attempt to relieve some of Toronto's pre-unionized labour suffering.

Too many Toronto families lived in squalid housing in the Ward, or Corktown, or King-Niagara, on wages that barely fed and clothed them, and that left them freezing in the winters and broiling in the summers. So before ignorant, complacent 21st century Torontonians stupidly call for the end of unions, let them first read about the dismal alternatives to unionism in the history of their own city. They'll also discover that the universalization of quality of life wages built the Toronto they take for granted.

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